From Review-Herald newspaper report by Pierre LaBossiere:

Mono County Sheriff's deputies, Mono County paramedics and members of the June Lake Mountain Rescue team load rescue gear into a Chinook helicopter at Bryant Field in Bridgeport Tuesday afternoon, as they prepare to head to Mount Conness, where a light airplane crashed Monday night. A Manteca man was killed in the crash - Review-Herald/Pierre LaBossiere


Paramedic Rick Terrell, center, receives a quick briefing from Doug Magee, left, of the June Lake Mountain Rescue Team at the Sheriff's Office new Emergency Operations Center in Bridgeport. Terrell was one of the rescue personnel who went up in a Chinook helicopter to the crash scene below Mount Conness - Review-Herald/Pierre LaBossiere

One dead in plane crash A 36-year-old Manteca man was killed in a light airplane crash Monday night, high in the Sierra Nevada near Yosemite National Park.

Rescue crews from throughout Mono County were dispatched Tuesday afternoon to Mount Conness to search for survivors of the plane crash.

The pilot, Alan Gray McDonald of Manteca, was reportedly flying his 1964 Mooney fixed-wing craft from Texas to Manteca, making a single stop en route at Albuquerque, N.M.

The plane crashed sometime Monday night, and the Mono County Sheriff's Office is still trying to determine the exact time of the crash. The plane reportedly sent out an emergency beacon signal that was first picked up by the Civil Air Patrol at about 4 a.m. Tuesday morning.

Later in the morning, a CAP search plane was dispatched to the area from Bishop and spotted the plane's wreckage. The CAP plane landed in Bridgeport to pick up Mono County Emergency Operations Coordinator Boe Turner, and Turner helped verify the exact location of the plane on a second flyover of the wreckage.

The plane apparently went down at the 12,000 foot level just below Mount Conness, which is located north of Tioga Pass. The plane had crashed near an area known as "Twenty Lakes Basin," just east of the boundary of Yosemite National Park. Turner reported that both wings of the plane appeared to have broken off.

The June Lake Mountain Rescue Team, Mono County Paramedics and Mono County Sheriff's Office helped coordinate the rescue effort Tuesday afternoon, working out of the new Emergency Operations Center in Bridgeport.

A huge Chinook military helicopter was dispatched from the Air National Guard base in Stockton to help transport rescuers to the scene. The helicopter took off from Bridgeport's Bryant Field Airport at about 1 p.m. Tuesday.

Mono County Undersheriff "Jake" Jacobsen said Tuesday that while one rescue team was heading for the scene of the accident in the helicopter, another was heading up Highway 120 as far as was possible given the deep snow conditions.

If winds had been too strong for the helicopter to land, the ground team from Highway 120 would have been advised to continue its efforts to reach the wreckage by land, Jacobsen said. Rescue teams were advised to bring overnight gear, just in case the rescue operation had continued through the night.

A third option considered by the rescuers would have called for June Lake Mountain Rescue Team members to rappel out of the helicopter if it could not land.

The Sheriff's Office expected no survivors, but a paramedic was sent onboard the helicopter in case anyone was alive at the crash scene.

Lieutenant Terry Padilla of the Mono County Sheriff's Office said Tuesday evening that the helicopter was able to land 50 feet from the wreckage, and that the back-up team did not have to be sent in.

June Lake Mountain Rescue Team members Igor Vorobyoff and Gary Gunther, Jacobsen, paramedic Rick Terrell, and Sheriff's deputies Terry Hier and Randy Hysell were included on the helicopter team.

Padilla said that McDonald apparently hadn't filed a flight plan as required.

The exact cause of the crash is still under investigation.